Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: PaulD
Company: GDC

The Church of the Living God

		08-12-11.FBC08-47 /

The Top Seraph Gives John Orders; The Angelic Table of Organization: Lucifer’s Real Name; His Fall; Seraphs: 6 Wings; Lucifer Chained in the Abyss, Rev 20:1-3

24.	Having certified that the Bride is properly attired to enter the banquet hall, the seraph king of arms speaks again to John in:
Revelation 19:9 -	Then he [ the king of arms ] said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’”  And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”
1)	The seraph commands John to write.  Notice that John, an apostle, is taking orders from a seraph angel and he responds with authority orientation.  The first word John is to write is the word for happiness: mak£rioj, makarios.
2)	The word “to write” is the aorist active imperative of:
gr£fw, graphō -	To make known by writing.  In this case John is to write down what the angel instructs.
aorist:	Culminative: views the event in its entirety, but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results.  What John writes is divine revelation and a part of the canon of Scripture.
active:	John produces the action by following the angel’s directive.
imperative:	Command: the order comes from the throne room and is delivered by one of the highest ranking angels, a six-winged seraph.
3)	There is an established table of organization among God’s creation and presently the chain of command runs from Jesus Christ downward to angels and then to believers in the Church Age.
4)	The Lord has command authority over the angelic creation, both elect and fallen.  He delegates authority down to certain of the elect angels as commissioned officers.
5)	The highest ranking of the elect angels is seraph ([r*c* seraph), designated by six wings (Isaiah 6:2; Revelation 4:8).
6)	The rank below seraph is cherub (bWrK= keruv; ceroÚb, cheroub), designated by four wings (Ezekiel 1:6; 10:21).
7)	The rank and file angels, called pursuivant, are wingless and are myriad in number.
8)	Prior to the creation of man, the highest rank among the angels was cherub.
9)	The cherub delegated authority over the angelic creation is identified in Isaiah 14:12 of the King James Version as “Lucifer, son of the morning.”  His real name is: rj^v*-/B# ll@yh@ helel ben shachar: “The Morning Star, Son of the Dawn.”  He is identified as the “anointed cherub” in Ezekiel 28:14 and the “covering cherub” in verse 16.
10)	These passages in Isaiah and Ezekiel document the fall of Lucifer and of those angels who followed him in his rebellion against God.
11)	In Matthew 25:41, the Lord informs us that the lake of fire was created for “the devil and his angels.”  However, we learn from Revelation 20:10 that Satan will not be cast into the lake of fire until the conclusion of the millennial kingdom, yet future by at least 1,007 years.
12)	From these two facts it becomes evident that Lucifer must have asked for an appeal trial, and since this occurred before the creation of the human race, we conclude that mankind was created as a means of resolving this appeal trial.
13)	Man was created physically inferior to the angels but equal to them soulishly, possessing self-consciousness, mentality, volition, and a conscience.
14)	As the appeal trial progresses from one dispensation to the next, testimony for the Prosecution is provided by those believers who advance in the plan of God assigned to them.
15)	In the angelic creation there were those who distinguished themselves during the Luciferian Revolution and achieved a superior rank to that of cherub.
16)	Seraph angels are designated by six wings and only a few are identified in Scripture:
1.	The “strong angel” of Revelation 5:2, 10:1, and 19:5.  The Greek word translated “strong” is „scurÒj, ischuros.
This word is assigned to both men and angels who have high rank and authority.  This angel is the seraph who apparently assumed the duties of Lucifer following the latter’s dishonorable discharge as a result of his rebellion.
2.	Revelation 14:15; 18:1 and 20:1-3 speak of “another angel” who also has great authority and is given the duty of sealing Satan in the Abyss compartment of Hades for the duration of the Millennium.
Revelation 20:1 -	Then I saw an angel [ Officer of Arms: seraph rank thus more powerful than Lucifer who is cherub rank ] descending from heaven [ an officer of the Supreme Court of Heaven authorized to deliver a warrant of arrest to Lucifer ].  He possessed the key to the Abyss [ ”Abussoj, Abussos: a compartment of Hades ] and a great chain [ “darkness” as per 2 Peter 2:4 & Jude 6 ].

NOTE:	Angels do not have bodies that are energized by nourishment as does the human race.  Angelic bodies are energized by light and therefore when certain fallen angels violate the rules of engagement for the angelic conflict they are imprisoned in darkness.  This is brought out in two passages that deal with the demons that procreated with the human women in Genesis 6 in an attempt to corrupt the line of Christ.
2 Peter 2:4 -	God did not spare the angels who sinned  [ Genesis 6:1-4 ], but threw them into Tartarus [ a compartment of Hades ] and locked them up in chains of darkness [ zÒfoj, zophos: a darkness in which there is no light thus immobilized ], to be kept until judgment.
Jude 6 -	You also know that the angels who did not keep within their proper domain but abandoned their own place of residence [ violated the rules of engagement ], He [ Christ ] has kept in eternal chains in utter darkness [ zÒfoj, zophos ], locked up for the judgment of the great Day [ Great White Throne Judgment ].
This seraph angel has the authority to incarcerate Lucifer in a special section of Hades called the Abyss and to incapacitate him by means of absolute darkness.
Revelation 20:2 -	And he overcame and arrested [ constative aorist active indicative of kratšw, krateō: to seize following a struggle; the arrest warrant lists Lucifer’s aliases ]: aka the dragon [ dr£kwn, drakōn and vj*n* nachash: serpent; from the ancient Arabic chasana: “beautiful”; cf. Ezekiel 28:12b,17a ]—aka the ancient serpent [ vj*n* nachash in Genesis 3:1 ] who is the devil [ di£boloj, diabolos: adversary ] and even Satan [ Satan©j, Satanas: defense attorney ]—and and bound him for a thousand years [ incarcerated during the Millennium ].

G. Johannes Botterwick, Helmer Ringgren, and Heinz-Josef Fabry, eds., “vj*n*” in Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, trans. David E. Green (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998), 9:357.

Revelation 20:3 -	Then he [ the Officer of Arms ] threw him into the Abyss and closed, locked, and sealed it over him, so that he should no longer deceive the nations [ m¾ plan£w, mē planaō: to not deceive, e.g.,  to not cause to stagger, wander about, go astray, disorient, mislead, commit error: this indicates that until this event occurs Lucifer had the power to manipulate politicians for the purpose of deceiving the people ] until the thousand years are completed.  (After these things he must be released for a short time [ Lucifer resumes his deception of the nations in the Gog and Magog rebellion (See Revelation 20:7-10, cf. Ezekiel 38:1‑39:20]).
3.	The “four living creatures” of Revelation 4:6-8, first introduced in Isaiah 6:1 as the seraphim in Isaiah’s vision in which he was commissioned as a prophet (v. 8).

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